An image of the of the 363-foot Saturn V rocket, used by the Apollo 11 moon mission, is projected onto the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, July 16, 2019. The projection is part of events organized to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The Saturn rocket launched astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin into space. Jim Lo Scalzo, EPA-EFE

This photograph shows the Saturn V launch vehicle (SA-506) for the Apollo 11 mission liftoff at 8:32 am CDT, July 16, 1969, from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Apollo 11 was the first manned lunar landing mission with a crew of three astronauts: Mission commander Neil A. Armstrong, Command Module pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module pilot Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. It placed the first humans on the surface of the moon and returned them back to Earth. Astronaut Armstrong became the first man on the lunar surface, and astronaut Aldrin became the second. Astronaut Collins piloted the Command Module in a parking orbit around the Moon. NASA

These are some of the thousands of people who camped out on beaches adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center in Fla. to watch the Apollo 11 mission liftoff aboard the Saturn V rocket, July 16, 1969. AFP/Getty Images

Astronaut and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity on the moon. He had just deployed the Early Apollo Scientific Experiments Package. In the foreground is the Passive Seismic Experiment Package; beyond it is the Laser Ranging Retro-Reflector (LR-3). NASA

New York City welcomes the Apollo 11 crew in a ticker tape parade down Broadway and Park Avenue. In the lead car are astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin. The three astronauts teamed for the first manned lunar landing, on July 20, 1969. NASA

Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio on Aug. 5, 1930 and passed away at age 82 on Aug. 25, 2012. Armstrong made history on July 20, 1969, when he became the first person to walk on the moon as commander of Apollo 11. This photograph of Armstrong from the Apollo 11 mission was taken inside the Lunar Module while the LM rested on the lunar surface. Astronauts Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, had already completed their historic spacewalk when this picture was made. Astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) in lunar orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin explored the moon's surface. NASA

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin stands besides a lunar seismometer looking back toward the lunar landing module in this photo taken by 'Apollo 11' commander and first Man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, on July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong, NASA via EPA-EFE

Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, descends the steps of the Lunar Module (LM) ladder as he prepares to walk on the moon, july 16, 1969. This photograph was taken by astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander, with a 70mm lunar surface camera during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA). While Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the LM "Eagle" to explore the moon, astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) in lunar orbit. NASA

This photograph of the Lunar Module at Tranquility Base was taken by Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 mission, from the rim of Little West Crater on the lunar surface. This is the furthest distance from the lunar module traveled by either astronaut while on the moon. NASA

Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins and Buzz Aldrin in a NASA photo used to promote the motion picture "In the Shadow of the Moon." The photo shows the three men in quarantine after their trip to the moon. Armstrong and Aldrin were respectively the first and second men to walk on the lunar surface. NASA

The Apollo 11 spacecraft Command Module (CM) is loaded aboard a Super Guppy Aircraft at Ellington Air Force Base for shipment to the North American Rockwell Corporation at Downey, Calif. The CM was just released from its postflight quarantine at the Manned Spacecraft Center (which would later be renamed JSC). NASA

Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 mission commander, floats safely to the ground after the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle exploded seconds before while Armstrong was rehearsing a lunar landing at Ellington Air Force Base near the Manned Spacecraft Center. The photo is a blowup of a 16mm documentary motion picture. NASA

Neil Armstrong trained for the Apollo 11 mission at NASA Langley's Lunar Landing Research Facility on equipment that cancelled all but one-sixth of Earth's gravitational force. Armstrong offered perhaps the greatest tribute to the importance of his training when asked what it was like to land on the moon, replying, "Like Langley." NASA

This is a Hasselblad 70mm Camera from the command module that was carried on the Apollo 11 mission. According to NASA, When John Glenn became the first American in orbit, bringing a camera was an afterthought. An Ansco Autoset 35mm camera, manufactured by Minolta, was purchased in a local drug store and hastily modified so the astronaut could use it more easily while in his pressure suit. A comprehensive set of camera equipment was carried on board Apollo 11. This included two 16mm Maurer motion picture film cameras, a color television camera in the orbiting Columbia, and a black and white TV camera outside of the lunar module to transmit to Earth Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon's surface. A Kodak stereo close-up camera was used to film the lunar soil from only inches away. Three Hasselblad 500EL cameras were carried. Two of the Hasselblad cameras were identical to those carried on the earlier Apollo 8 and 10 lunar orbit missions. During the Moon landing one Hasselblad was left aboard the Command Module Columbia, which remained in lunar orbit. Two were taken on the Lunar Module Eagle to the Moon's surface. Tasos Katopodis, EPA-EFE

Neil Armstrong is awarded the Samuel P. Langely medal in front of the Apollo 11 Columbia Command Module during a ceremony on the 30th anniversary of the moon landing as Vice President Al Gore applauds, July 20 1999 at the National Air and Space Museum. Joyce Naltchayan, AFP/Getty Images

The crew of Apollo 11, Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stand in front of the Apollo command module Columbia after being awarded the Samuel P. Langley medal July, 20, 1999 at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. Joyce Naltchayan, AFP/Getty Images

Apollo 11 Astronauts Edwin Aldrin Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong get a close view of one of the moon rocks carried back by the crew from the surface of the moon, Sept. 16, 1969 in Washington. The two-pound, fist-sized grey rock was turned over to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and will be put on public display. Charles Harrity, Ap

But for a tense few minutes, the fate of that mission and even the lives of those astronauts rested with a 26-year-old Iowa native at Mission Control named Stephen Bales.

Bales was born in Ottumwa, but grew up in Fremont. When he was 15 years old, the Soviet Union put Sputnik in orbit, giving the United States' Cold War rivals the first victory in the space race.

Bales decided on a career in space. He graduated from Fremont High School in a class of 22 students.

On an average summer night, Bales would gaze up at the universe and point out as many constellations as he could see.

“It was really the perfect place to grow up,” Bales, now 75, told the Register from his home in Swell, New Jersey.

Native Iowa Steve Bales sits at NASA Mission Control in this 1960s-era photo. Bales was instrumental in figuring two computer errors that could've scrubbed the moon landing which happened 50 years ago July 20, 1969.(Photo: Special to the Register)

Apollo 10 in May 1969 was the dress rehearsal for Apollo 11. They even nicknamed the command module “Charlie Brown,” after the Charles Shultz comic strip character that never gets to kick the football.

But Apollo 11 was the real deal. Humankind was going to attempt to land on the moon. Engineers, scientists — everyone involved — went through rigorous training.

Bales trained on every possible aspect of the computers and navigation on the lunar module. The computer system aboard the module was designed by MIT scientists.

The computer, which was orange, was about the size of a briefcase and had a small box with readouts that gave the pilots information about their flight.

On one of the final days of training on the computer systems, Bales recalled the MIT scientists saying, “OK, this is the stuff that’s never going to happen, but we want to go over.”

Included in that “never going to happen” lessons were the codes that would later fuel anxiety in the final moments of the most important spaceflight in human history.

The craft hurtled through space for three days with only minimal contact with Mission Control. The flight was largely uneventful, and Apollo 11 reached lunar orbit on July 19.

At 12:46 p.m., the lunar module separated from the command module and began its descent to the lunar surface.

This is the Eagle lunar landing module in landing configuration in orbit taken by Michael Collins on July 20, 1969. (Photo: Michel Collins, NASA via EPA-EFE)

The landing craft traveled at a faster pace than engineers anticipated. Still, the landing progressed without incident until the module was about 6,000 feet above the moon’s surface.

The small computer screen flashed a warning: Program Alarm 1202.

“What the hell is that?” Collins, the command module pilot, recalled thinking, he told the Houston Chronicle in 1989. Collins scanned his checklist.

On the ground, Steve Bales and his team of engineers — including Jack Garmen of Oak Park, Illinois — knew exactly what a 1202 was.

“It was ‘executive overflow,’ which mean the computer might not be keeping up with its computing tasks,” Bales said. “The computer was operating at a higher capacity than expected when it started to receive ground radar data.”

Each second was critical. If the computer wasn’t working properly, the mission would need to abort. But the closer the landing craft got to the moon’s surface, the harder it would be to escape the moon’s soft gravity and reconnect with the command module.

It was entirely possible the ship would crash into the moon’s surface, killing Armstrong and Aldrin and dramatically changing history.

“If we had been wrong that day and people died, I think that would have really hurt the space program,” Bales said. “We had lost people on the ground before, but to come this close, with all those people watching, I don’t know if we could have recovered from that for a very long time.”

Bales and his team believed the alarm was a fluke and said so immediately, relaying the decision to Charlie Duke, the spacecraft commander on the ground whose Southern drawl had become familiar to the millions worldwide who were watching the historic event.

“Roger, we’re go on that alarm,” Duke said, emphasizing the “go.”

The trip to the moon’s surface continued. About 3,000 feet before landing, another program alarm flashed. This one was 1201. It, too, Bales and his team deduced, was executive overflow. They were go.

Soon, the landing module was on the ground. After hours of checking systems, Armstrong exited the vehicle, making that giant leap for mankind.

The moon landing provided a rare moment of global unity. An estimated 600 million people watched the moon landing around the world.

“You think about all those, ‘Where were you when it happened?’ moments, and they’re almost all negative: Pearl Harbor, the JFK assassination or 9/11,” Bales said. “But the moon landing is one where people look at it and say, ‘Wow, we really did something there.”

Then, as now, society had its division. The Vietnam War raged. The nation was barely a year removed from the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

The poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron took outcry that the U.S. government should have devoted its resources to the terrestrial concerns of poverty, crime and race inequalities, and epitomized it in the song, “White on the Moon.”

Still, humankind had slipped the bonds of the planet that gave it life and landed on an object in the heavens.

The moment might not have been possible if it weren’t for a Fremont kid from a high school class of 22.

When the late President Richard Nixon awarded Aldrin, Armstrong and Collins the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Bales accepted a NASA Group Achievement Award on behalf of the entire mission operations team.

Nixon said of Bales: “This is the young man, when the computers seemed to be confused and when he could have said, ‘Stop,’ or when he could have said, ‘Wait,’ he said, ‘Go.”

Register storyteller Daniel P. Finney invited his whole fifth-grade class out to his parents’ Winterset acreage to watch Halley’s Comet in 1986. He hopes to see it one more time before he leaves Earth. Reach him at 515-284-8144 or dafinney@dmreg.com. Follow him on Twitter at @newsmanone or Facebook at @danielpfinney.

In 1969, Master Sgt. Harold R. Curry, left, of Des Moines and airman first class Thomas J. Deardorff of Adel, work on the front half of a divided F84F tactical fighter as part of a two-week training camp for the Iowa Air National Guard’s 132nd Tactical Fighter Wing at the Des Moines International Airport. Register file photo

In what must have been one of the coldest jobs in Des Moines Jan. 2, 1969, a tow truck driver prepares to hook a line on a car stranded in the 1700 block of Maury Street, hubcap deep in freezing water. Four trucks and about a dozen cars were stuck in the frozen water used to fight an all-night fire at a nearby landfill dump at 17th and Harriett streets flowed onto Maury Street. Register file photo

Milwaukee Road freight cars are strewn like jackstraws after a through freight plowed into the rear of a local freight New Year's morning (1969) near the center of Coon Rapids, killing the through freight's engineer and brakeman, both of Perry. Register file photo

Dean Brand is shown during the 1969 Veishea celebration as a member of the Iowa State University ROTC band. "They didn't have sousaphones, so I had to play the trombone again," Brand wrote in he and wife Roddy's military scrapbook.For more historical Iowa photos, subscribe to the Register here: http://bit.ly/2KZwECu. Special to the Register

John Annable (11) makes himself right at home during an Oak Leafs' International Hockey League game Jan. 5, 1969, against Dayton at Ice Arena. Annable played for Leafs in 1968 before being traded to Toledo. The Jan. 5 game was his first in Des Moines since being traded back to the Leafs that same week. Des Moines lost, 3-2. Register file photo

An advertisement in the Jan. 5, 1969 Des Moines Register for Atlantic Thrift Center, which had locations on East 14th Street and Euclid Avenue, features numerous items that cost just 69 cents. Register file photo

Inside the Statehouse in Des Moines, House Speaker William Harbor, a Republican from Henderson, views an empty Iowa House. The scene will change dramatically the next Monday when the 1969 Legislative session opened. Register file photo

The headline from Jan. 11, 1969, read "Big sideburns crop is sprouting in D.M." and the story said "those hairy facial adornments known as sideburns" ... "have become increasingly popular in this area, especially among younger males. Register file photo

Archived photo: Seiji Ozawa, of the New York Philharmonic, plays a game of pick up baseball during the orchestra's 1969 visit to Ames, Iowa. Iowa State University Library Special Collections/Special to the Register

From 1969: Iowa Gov. Robert Ray exhibits black moon chips brought back by Apollo II astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and a miniature Iowa flag that made the round trip with them in July to the lunar surface. Ray said the display, encased in plastic, probably would be turned over to the State Historical Society. Ray and other governors had been given the souvenirs by President Richard Nixon. Register file photo

From 1969: Iowa Gov. Robert Ray addresses a large crowd of students from non-public schools throughout the state who converged on the Statehouse in May 1969 for a "listen-in." State officials and legislators talked Register file photo

Close to 2,500 fans packed the Montezuma High School gymnasium in March 1969 to celebrate the school's first state girls' basketball tournament championship. The Saturday night title game that saw Montezuma beat Allison-Bristow 66-60 was followed by a caravan that picked up hundreds of cars on its way from Des Moines to Poweshiek County. Register file photo

Patrick Bauer, left, now a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law, back in this 1969 photo at Wesleyan University in Connecticut was attempting to look like Bob Dylan as much as possible. He's standing next to a friend from his dorm floor, Michael Kaloyanides, now a professor of ethnomusicology at the University of New Haven. Bauer has spent his life enthralled by Dylan. Special to The Register

Drake University football legend Johnny Bright talks with the Bulldogs' three 1969 captains on the turf of Drake Stadium, where Bright gained fame (and record yardage) in 1949-1951. From left: defensive end John Knight, Bright, quarterback Gary McCoy and split end Duane Miller. Bright was named the greatest player in Drake's football history. Register file photo

Grinnell High School students Kathy Haner, left, and Cheryl George present a dance a dance number at the Grinnell High Variety Show, a benefit for a school band, on Feb. 16, 1969. Special to the Register

Allan Hoschar, who worked as city editor, religion editor and legislative reporter during a 40-year career at the Des Moines Register & Tribune, is pictured in 1969. He retired in 1972. Copyright 2000 The Des Moines Register;Yes-desm

The year... is 1969. Denise Long, 18-year-old basketball star from Whitten, Iowa, and the only girl ever drafted by an NBA team, gags it up on San Francisco's Hyde street cable car line. Long was the 13th pick of the San Francisco Warriors. Register file photo

Des Moines Police officer Russell Nauman is all smiles as he visits with Mrs. Brian Armentrout, 27, and daughter Kimberley Marie at Mercy Hospital. Nauman assisted with the delivery of 6-pound, 10-ounce Kimberley, who was born in the East 39th Street home of her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Jewett. Register file photo

Three eighth-grade girls stop to view the scene of a fire that destroyed the Bruce & Carlson Furniture & Carpets store on Second Avenue in Des Moines. Officials suspected arson as the cause of the fire. From left, eighth-grade classmates Beverly Ancell, Debbie Manning and Cindy Mingo. Register file photo

Camping took on an urban twist for members of Boy Scout Troop 24 of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, who spent the night of Feb. 7, 1969, in tents on the mall of Merle Hay Plaza shopping center. Early risers were Steve Webb (bottom), 12, and Steve Zimmerman, 13, who peer out from their tent at Greg Peterson, 14. Register file photo

West Central (Maynard) girls, from left, guard Patty Spratt, forward Jean Kuennen and team manager Nancy Samuelson start their day in Des Moines with a light breakfast before opening the state girls' basketball tournament against Audubon. Register file photo

The first four of 400 Drake University students who waited through the night to buy tickets for the Drake basketball team's appearance in the NCAA Final Four in Kentucky smilingly walk away from the ticket office. From left: James Cooper of Washington, D.C.; Ralph Russo of Stamford, Connecticut; Frank Mackaman of Rolla, Missouri; and Debbie Knight of Boston, Massachusetts. Register file photo

This was the 7 a.m. scene Monday, March 17, 1969 inside the Drake University Fieldhouse as the sun's early light flooded through windows upon about 400 students who stayed overnight. Each held a number assuring them the right to purchase a ticket to the Bulldogs' NCAA Final Four game in Kentucky against defending national champion UCLA. Register file photo

Drake's Dolph Pulliam (5) hits the final Bulldog basket that pulled them within 1 point, 83-82, of UCLA during a NCAA Tournament Final Four game in Kentucky, March 21, 1969. The defending champion Bruins won 85-82. Register file photo

Drake University men's basketball player Willie McCarter receives the Clarkson Award March 23, 1969, as the most outstanding amateur basketball player in Iowa. From left: Iowa Gov. Robert Ray, George Clarkson, McCarter and Drake president Paul Sharp. Register file photo

This photo taken from inside a game room shows the damaged ceiling and walls after an explosion April 3, 1969, at Soul Village on Forest Avenue in Des Moines. The blast, in which dynamite apparently was used, also shattered windows in several homes in the area and was heard by residents several miles away. No injuries were reported. Damage was estimated at more than $20,000. Register file photo

Robert Dahl, left, and Mark Mosier show off their home-built flying machine. Swift, owner and operator of the Willows Supper Club near Washington, Iowa, and Dahl, manager of the local Fareway Store built the "Breezy" aircraft with help from Richard Embree, owner and operator of Norton Plumbing, Heating and Cooling. It cost about $3,000 and took them about 9 months to build. Register file photo

Bleachers in the gym make a handy perch for people and food during a picnic that ends the school year at Green Mountain in Marshall County, a tradition that was at least 40 years old in 1969. Register file photo

Des Moines city humane officer Roger Gustafson "shakes hands" with one of the first tenants of the city's new temporary dog pound near Sec Taylor Stadium (background). The dog facility is located adjacent to the stadium parking lot in an old Park Department building once used to store bleachers. The city has space for eight dogs but plans to make room for at least 50 more. Register file photo

This is the small private plane in which former heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano, 45, and two Des Moines men, Frank Farrell, 22, and Glen Belz, 37, were killed in a crash near the Newton airport Aug. 31, 1969. The plane, a Cessna 172, was en route from Chicago to Des Moines. Register file photo

All eyes turned to the television set on this November 1969 day at the Saydel elementary school for a broadcast of the Apollo 12 splashdown. Mrs. Penny Davidson, one of five Teacher Corpsmen who are working in experimental classrooms, is shown back right. Register file photo

William B. Walker and his wife Mary, of Des Moines, bought a piano "for all of the children and they can take it from there," Mary said. "We make up our songs and we sing a lot. We have a good time. The kids mostly want to stick around home." Children are, clockwise from left, Valerie, 6; Harry, 7; Archie, 9; Calvin, 10, and at right on piano bench, Callie, 8. Register file photo

Carlisle Bean and his sculpture "Bosmit Moose" on the Central College campus. Bean, 26 and a senior art major from Arlington, Virginia, created the art from scrap collected in gravel pits around the area. "It is meant to be kicked, grappled with, clanged and climbed on," he said. "No matter what you do, it could only enhance Moose's natural beauty. If you wish to throw paint on it or something, that's OK, too." Register file photo